


Genesis 4:8

by kienava



Category: The Locked Tomb Trilogy | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir
Genre: Alecto the Ninth Predictions, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Ficlet, Fratricide, POV Ianthe Tridentarius, and i don't know how to unpack it, my confusing sympathy for ianthe is jumping out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:28:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27475774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kienava/pseuds/kienava
Summary: Alecto the Ninth prediction: Coronabeth's killing Ianthe, y'all. Considering they were almost called Cainabeth and Abella, this doesn't feel terribly far-fetched.Canon-typical gore, violence, and inappropriately timed humor.
Relationships: Coronabeth Tridentarius & Ianthe Tridentarius
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	Genesis 4:8

The first thing Ianthe felt when the trident entered her chest was surprise. Searing, severing pain, and surprise.

Despite being a man-child made of gall, Naberius never would have caved to such insubordination. Seeing the weapon a loyal cavalier had once used pierce through a necromancer’s right and left atria at once might have humbled anyone less accustomed to having their body parts rearranged.

Rather, the shock came from the knowledge that Coronabeth had apparently been brushing up on basic anatomy.

Ianthe watched the arms of the trident twist and tighten as a rib bent, _bent,_ and snapped. She looked up from the faultless mechanism into eyes that her own no longer mirrored and gave a name to regret for the first time she could recall.

“Everything I did was for you.” Ianthe’s words should have come across as guilt-laden and guilt-obliging in equal parts, but tone was hard to convey through a mouthful of one’s own blood and bile.

“I never asked you to do any of it!” Coronabeth whined, a petulant toddler stamping her foot because her pretty, purple, puppy eyes hadn’t been enough to get her what she wanted. 

An unmistakable sound - sinew and tissue sundering - warned Ianthe that she had only one more chance to make her last words count. But she could never strike back at Coronabeth, could she? She’d never be able to live with herself if she did such a thing, so this was really turning out to be a lose-lose.

For all of her inappropriate interest in knowing how other people’s insides looked, Ianthe had never thought that her own blood-pumping organ might be so grotesquely misshapen. Its ventricles stretched down longer than they should, and what must have been the aorta just sort of hung there limply, sputtering. The attack might have been a little less lethal if the organ had looked like it should've. Perhaps Coronabeth hadn’t read a book just to prepare for this moment, and maybe she had simply gotten lucky. That was her greatest skill, after all.

With no rebuttal, no excuse, and a most repulsive pang of remorse, Ianthe Tridentarius died with her heart outside her chest, where it always had been.

***

**Author's Note:**

> me: i'll never write something with a character death
> 
> the locked tomb trilogy, where everyone dies: 
> 
> side note cannot believe that "content warning: ianthe tridentarius" is a legitimate tag on here now
> 
> i'm @gideonthesixtyninth on tumblr


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